His Majesty's Barque Endeavour 1768 - 1/96 model by Shipyard

[Kevin WS]

Tappi, the approach you are suggesting for planking is 100% correct.

This is the same way wooden models are planked (and I have made many) and is in the fact the best way to go about any planking on a boat or ship (wood or paper).

You can plank the inside first or later - I would do it first though as this reduces the risk of damaging the outside of the hull later.

Then plank the hull from the top down. The straight runs of planking are at the top, and the planking here is also the most noticeable, so it needs to look good. Starting at the top helps with this.

Then work down. Full planks. Follow the curve. Then fill in the "gaps" from the top down.

I hope that makes sense - if you would like some photos that illustrate this I can take some for you.

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In terms of your second question, I think varnishing the hull before starting planking is a great idea. This makes perfect sense!

[Tapcho]

Thanks Kevin! So I'll just glue the red strips in place on the insede and trim the outer skin to that height and then start applaying the final skin on the outside from top to bottom. Sounds like a plan to me. The reason I'd like to seal the hull before that is because I want some latitude with what glue to use. In some places PVA might do the trick but not if the underlaying hull is going to be 'moistened' too. We'll see how this goes.

I'm not planking the hull plank per plank, that would have been too easy. The kit is designed in a way that the final skin (planking) cames in bigger plates aswell. See the pic.

BR Tappi

[JCK]

Hi Tapcho!

Radek here from my brother's account:

First of all, nice progress and the build looks good!

Regarding the photos, I am reducing size and quality in photoshop so the files are all about or less than 1MB because from my experience it takes a while to load them when I click on them. But I am not sure if it depends on the dimensions only or also on the file size.

The hull approach I made completely different, beginning from the bottom to the top. But scratch build is different. Also I mark with a pen first the planking on the white hull to see if it fits. Sometimes I went from the wales to the top, and from the bottom to the wales, marking first where the wales will be on the hull. But I think any approach is good, just check first that all parts do fit! (sometimes there is a bit missing and sometimes you need to cut off a bit more)

As for the sealing of the first hull before planking. I think with shipyard models that is not necessary if you do not use a water diluted glue.

Rgds,
Radek

[Kevin WS]

Tappi - thanks for the photos.

Hmm, the planking being in plates may make a difference.

I have thought about this and I think top-down is still MAYBE the way to go, but I would also try dry-fitting the planking plates to see how they fit. If the bottom-most section looks really problematic, then maybe do this first.

My thought here is that you can dry fit and then cut slits (and remove if necessary small sections) to get a good fit on the bottom. Similar to the wooden planking approach, except for the fact it is in one sheet.

But I assume the top sections are key as these will have to be aligned with and ports on the side of the boat. So another argument for doing them first!

Radek mentions a similar approach in terms of fitting etc.

In terms of the varnishing, do it. No harm in doing so. remember also that it protects further against warping from damp, and also from insects (such as fishmoths) if you have these in your area.

Very light spray coats repeated a few times will work without causing any warps or damage.

In terms of the rigging or details if you need any info let me know. I have an extensive library of all the classic historical books on wooden ships, including their building and rigging, ships boats etc etc.

[Tapcho]

Hi Radek and Kevin, you both have good points about the working order so I pick the 'best of the both world' method and combine your suggetions. I do the planking from keel up to the border of a 'black belt on her waist and the same from top down to the black area. When adding the black coloured planking I can hide any gaps by jus widening that area a bit - it will be painted anyway (I don't like the way the plaking is presented in that section with white lines). Thank you both for the advice and couragement. The build will continue during weekend.

BR Tappi

[Tapcho]

I've decided to seal the hull and I get the spray lacquer on Friday. My idle hands got restles and so did my mind - I needed a small side project.

Remember that cute stove in the kit that got hidden under the weather deck? I came to wonder could I make a presentation of a 18th centurish ship's firehearth or stove. I found some pictures in the internet and off I went. Here is the stove at present stage. All scratch built from paper, card and copperwire.

This doesn't represent any particular spove or stove type (maybe Brodie stoves are close), I just tried to incorporate various ideas I found from the pictures into the build. Things that interested me and we're typical at the time.

Tomorrow I add few mode details and then I'll paint and weather the thing. Hope you like this spinn-off project so far.

BR Tappi

[Kevin WS]

Excellent Tappi - well done! Nice little project.

[Tapcho]

Thank you Kevin! Here are the final pictures. It is a loosely sketched Alexsander Brodie's papented fireheart for ship's type of stove. Brodie was a very succesfull busuness man in Cook's time and may well have provided Endeavours stove too.

It has two lagre kettles for boiling meat in broth and plenty of owens for veggies and roots. It has a grill too with a hand cranked skewer - some of the more sofisticated ones had automated rotation by a fan in the smokestack!

Reason for this exercise was trying to find some of my lost modeling skills back, some found and some lost forever. Anyways I hope this prepares me a little bit better for what's ahead with the ship build.

I apologise the terrible paint job, that was the best I came up with. Harsh lightning didn't hep either. ;-)

BR Tappi

[whulsey]

Welcome back! Off to a great start.

[Rata]

Nice work on the stove. I can smell the Yorkshire Pudding from here!